Tangerine and Vanilla-Bean Marmalade

I very randomly received a box of tangerines over Christmas. They were delivered while I was home in Texas but my neighbors kindly held on to them for me and I picked them up in January when I got back. I like citrus but it's not my favorite fruit. My sister would pick an orange over almost any other fruit and for me, it's sort of at the bottom of my fruit list. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that there are so many other fruits that I like soooo much more. I also have a weird prejudice again fruits that have seeds. I suppose it's the inevitable result of growing up in a world where seedless grapes and navel oranges are the norm (and I think that they rock!) and I just hate having to navigate around a seed when I bite into something. Cherries are the only exception to this rule but give me a cherry pitter and I will gladly pit each one before I eat it. So, I had this box of tangerines and I knew that I wouldn't eat all of them before they got moldy or otherwise gross . . . what to do? Investigate recipes that call for tangerines, preferably a whole lot of tangerines. I came across this recipe for marmalade on epicurious and the reviews were pretty good, so I decided to try it out. I'll say, I did cut it in half and I am so glad that I did! It made a lot of marmalade and I don't have all of those little glass jars to give it away in so it's mine.

The marmalade is fairly easy to make as long as you have about a couple of hours to make sure that it cooks without major kitchen disasters on the second day. The first day you merely cut the fruit into thin slices and then into quaters and let it soak in water. Then the next day you boil down the fruit and water first, then add sugar, and boil it some more.



Tangerine Vanilla Bean Marmalade (from Epicurious)
Ingredients

• 2 pounds tangerines, each cut into 4 wedges
• 1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
• 5 cups water
• 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise and crosswise
• 3 1/2 cups sugar

Cut tangerine and lemon wedges crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Discard seeds from fruit. Transfer fruit to large bowl. Add 5 cups water, covering fruit. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature 1 day. Transfer fruit mixture to heavy large pot. Scrape in seeds from vanilla beans; add beans. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until rind is very tender and fruit begins to fall from rind, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add sugar; stir until sugar dissolves. Boil gently until mixture is 210°F, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Divide vanilla beans and boiling hot marmalade among four 1-cup jars. Cover tightly and refrigerate up to 2 months.

Here's where I broke with the recipe: the marmalade still tasted a little bitter to me so I added more sure (just a little bit more, about 1/2 of a cup). And, the rind gets very tender but it's still rind and I just didn't like the idea of spreading tangerine rind onto my biscuit or toast so I used the immersion blender to give it a little chop. There are still some hunks of rind and it's by no means smooth, but it's more of what I think of as a marmalade consistency. I'm not convinced that it didn't need to cook longer but I cooked it for the specified amount of time, plus a little extra.

I should mention, I'd never had marmalade before. Paddington Bear likes marmalade and I was always curious about it when I was little (and I used to watch Paddington on TV) but that curiosity passed and I've always been a strawberry jam sort of girl. The marmalade has a very nice flavor and I think that if you like marmalade, you'll probably like this. Me? I think that it might be an acquired taste, you know? It's bitter and I think that marmalade is supposed to be a little bitter because of all of the rind? It's pretty good with Greek yogurt and hot oatmeal. I might try to find a recipe for marmalade muffins so that I can use it a bit faster!